Is HTML5 just a new buzzword or did it come to stay? What good is it for? Can it sing, dance, make coffee?

Quite a lot of information on the subject showed up recently but I was not sure what’s good and what’s not. Peter Wayner offers a four-part series devoted to the new features of HTML5. I found it a good starting point.

P.S. Credit for the image goes to Rafael Poveda.

I had to type a document in Russian using the Cyrillic alphabet. In order to do that I had to use JCUKEN (ЙЦУКЕН) – a Cyrillic keyboard layout – but did not have Russian characters inscribed on my keyboard. As a solution I made a little note with the letter sequence of each row and stuck it to the bottom of my screen.

At first I red the text I had to type, then I looked at my little cheat sheet at the bottom of the screen, and then I tried to type my text. In this case staring at the keyboard did not do any good as there was nothing to see.

Soon I realized that I am trying to memorize which letters are those two with the little raised dots on them and how other letters are positioned in relation to them. Just in few hours I could feel my progress.

Conclusion – if you want to learn touch typing, get a blank keyboard. Many of us like to peek at the keys when we are typing, but with the blank keyboard it would not be a problem as there won’t be anything to look at

I heard about this idea before – food growing machine which won the Electrolux Design Lab Competition. It grows meat and fish from heated animal cells. I was amazed.

Few days ago I read about Cocoon again.  My first thought was – “they finally started the production!” and “where can I get one?” Unfortunately it is still just a concept and Electrolux is not planning to include Cocoon in their product line.

I really would not mind eating “meat born in a small kitchen appliance”. Especially when I think about forests and meadows saved from being turned into the pastures. Cocoon would be one more way of helping to save the environment.

I am reading an interesting book by Victoria Squire called Getting it right with type. It revealed an entertaining fact about the type. The terms uppercase and lowercase come from the time of manual typesetting. Traditional metal type was stored in two wooden cases – capital letters in the top one and small letters in the bottom. As simple as that. But so amazing.

Figure out the next most important thing and do that.

Less planning & prioritizing and more doing. Otherwise life is passing by while you are making lists and trying to choose between important decisions.

I got fascinated about the idea of private poetry readings in a sexy sultry way in a saloon-type environment.

More precisely – I am talking about poetry brothels. I first encountered the idea on the plane reading a magazine. They had an article about a poetry brothel in Barcelona. As far as I know there are three of them now: one in New York, one in Barcelona & one in Leicester (UK).

Reading as a recreational activity has gone into decline. I bet even less people spend their time reading poetry. Poetry brothels will bring back the attractiveness of the written word put into rhymes.

In the era when entertainment and new experience plays such a big role in creating people’s happiness poetry brothels might be just the right thing to indulge yourself with. And it wont be just a temporal treat. This experience may have a pleasant long lasting impression on your mind and soul.

Wrong!

After you have got tired of consuming gingerbread cookies and having wine you take a bag of fluffy stuff, a long and extra sharp needle and… yes, start punching.

+ =

After seeing Zane doing her magic I felt so tempted to try.

Now I can understand her inability to put down the needle until 4 am and her stories about the next day  in the office when the only thought after such a night is not about a soft welcoming pillow but about the next felted creature which will come into this world after hours of patient and tiresome punching.  (We even thought about possible necessity of establishing a Felters Anonymous.)

It’s an interesting and creative way of stress relief after a busy day in the office. And what’s even better, in few hours time you can get something tangible for yourself (a little charm or a brooch) or a unique gift for your friend.

In the end of the process I got a little reindeer and I can tell you – those punches in my fingers were definitely worth it.

I recently had a chance to try Machinarium. It’s an award-winning independent puzzle / adventure game developed by the ingenious studio Amanita Design.  ’Machinarium is an extraordinarily beautiful creation. It’s a sort of beauty that games are almost never graced with’ (rockpapershotgun.com).

Machinarium took the prize for “Excellence in Visual Art” at this (2009)  year’s Independent Game Festival. And it’s totally clear why. The hand-drawn scenes and characters are captivating and entertaining.

The game itself is catchy and exciting. Journey of the main character is full of unexpected surprises, the scenes and tasks are artistically crafted. And if you get stuck there are two levels of clues.

The game has a stunning audio track and a very high level of playability. Some puzzles may keep you in the game for a while but it’s such a great pleasure. Enjoy!

Our housemate Marko showed us a brilliant pasta recipe tonight. As he said ‘it’s tastiest of the easy-ones’.

You take canned or frozen green peas, fry them with onions in the olive oil until you get a green mushy paste.
Meanwhile you boil farfarelle (bow-shaped pasta) until tender.  You put some fresh cream in a bowl, add pasta when it’s ready, mix it with the fried green peas and add thinly sliced ham.

It’s quick and absolutely DELICIOUS!

I was passing by some shops today and was startled by the view.

Two days ago all the shop windows were full of pumpkins and skeletons but it seems that it was only a small necessary interlude, something you have to get over with to get to the actual big thing – selling Christmas.

All the witches have been quickly swapped with Santa Clauses, spiders and cobwebs with little angels and artificial snow. But I doubt that’s because the shopkeepers prefer positive over scary. It’s just so that on x-mas people spend more.

It looks like not just people suffer from the recession. The Halloween spirit can quietly wrap itself in the cobweb somewhere in the attic corner and dream about the old days of glory and celebration.

(Thanks to cuu for the photo.)